The Elemental Cycle X: Flamecapture
by kazeno
Summary: The Sorceress' Knight...


A/N: Ahha. Here it is - the great update. Elemental Cycle eleven through fourteen, and The End. Plus a poem! Somebody tell me I'm crazy...

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**the elemental cycle x: flamecapture**

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Seifer hurried down the stairs of the Presidential Residence, paying no attention to the grandiose furnishings. He knew Edea would be going out for her speech sometime about now, and he had to prepare. Some part of him was glad that Fujin and Raijin had returned, to help him, to fight at his side. After all, weren't squires supposed to stay near their knights? -As knights had to keep close to their sorceresses.

Another part of him wished they hadn't come - wouldn't need to betray Garden.

_Betray Garden? What am I thinking about? Garden doesn't matter - nothing does. And anyway, what could be better than having a Sorceress rule the world? Like Hyne - all was good in the times of the Hyne._

__He strode out into the courtyard, where the attendants were hurriedly rolling the huge float on which Edea would ride behind the massive gates. Watching the scene, he suffered a twinge of pity for the poor souls who toiled for the sorceress, doomed to stay in obscurity for the rest of their lives, trodden over by the rich and the famous, ignored except when someone needed something done.

_You don't need to worry. You'll never end up like that. You'll be a star, shining bright in the night sky along with your sorceress. _The thought felt oddly like it wasn't his, but Seifer was too preoccupied to notice.

Looking up, Seifer grinned as he saw Sorceress Edea walk out with slow, graceful steps to the podium, where she laid long-fingered hands beside the microphone and started to speak. Two other people stood behind her, one a middle-aged, balding man - Deling - and the other a teenage girl.

_What the - _Rinoa?

It _was_ Rinoa, he realized - standing behind the sorceress, swaying slightly as if bewitched, drawn by the sorceress' power like a moth to an open fire. Why was she here? To serve the sorceress? No - he remembered suddenly. She'd been dancing with Squall, the night of the inauguration dance. His mouth twisted into a grimace. She'd probably come here to try and kill the sorceress for Squall or something.

The speech ended, as it had to - with a sacrifice, to catch the eye of the masses, show them that Edea wasn't to be trifled with, to banish the last traced of the old order. With a single swift slice of fingers now sharp as blades, Edea killed Deling, his body falling to the floor of the podium with a horrified look on its face. The fool. Having finished with the former president, the dark sorceress raised her hands, working some spell. Its import became clear as two igiuons, animated gargoyles sped forward through the mass of people, leaping up to the podium and knocking Rinoa back into the room beyond.

_The hell-! They're going to kill Rinoa! _Only the weighty gaze of Edea's amber eyes kept him from rushing in the save her.

Sorceress Edea floated through the bottom of the podium, to land gracefully on the throne set on top of the float. She sat down, arranging the folds of her gown. Then, before the float began to move, she gestured imperiously to Seifer, motioning him to join her.

_Me?_ Seifer looked up, surprised. Join her? Edea smiled at him. Forgetting Rinoa, Seifer climbed up to stand at the front of the float where Edea indicated, heart filled with exultation. Now the world would know Seifer Almasy was Edea's knight.

The star-spangled night sky suddenly got spangled with more than just stars as fireworks positioned in various parts of the city were set off. The float slowly moved through the open gates of the Presidential Residence and into the city, accompanied by haunting, strange music played by speakers underneath the float.

Grinning, Seifer planted the Hyperion's tip on the floor and surveyed the masses of people crowding the roadside to watch Sorceress Edea - their savior, their leader. Adulation, respect, love... all that he wanted, he would get. _Except for one thing..._ he squelched that thought faster than he thought it.

Better not to think on the things he didn't have.

**o**

Angry. Seifer was angry that he'd lost. Angry that he'd lost favor in the eyes of the sorceress, who had reproached him for his failure. Angry that Rinoa actually cared for _Squall_ - enough to shout his name when the brat had been knocked off the float. Angry, that he'd actually _lost_ to the one-year younger, brat of a Squall Leonhart.

He'd taken it out on Zell earlier, watching the martial artist, normally so talkative, clamp his mouth shut and get kicked around in return. Now, he took it out on the prone body of Squall himself, who yelled something incoherent as the electricity ripped into and across his body, setting his nerves afire. Seifer hoped it wasn't Rinoa's name.

He simply watched, holding Hyperion. Glared, anger seething along his veins. He couldn't remember being so angry before. Some part of him still felt uneasy, like something was wrong, but the rest of him shoved that part aside in the dash for glory as Edea's knight.

And what would a knight be if he couldn't even get one simple piece of information out of a helpless enemy?

'I... won't... tell you... anything!' Squall gasped through gritted teeth. One of his hands was clenched into a fist. Seifer smirked - what did the idiot think he could do?

Walking in front of Squall, Seifer tilted his head to look up at the boy, eyes narrowed. Squall glared back defiantly, stormy gray eyes unreadable.

'It's your choice,' he calmly informed the black-garbed SeeD. And gestured for the warden to turn on the electricity.

When Squall was done screaming, Seifer repeated the question.

'What is the true meaning of SeeD?'

'I don't know...' Squall moaned, a muscle in his cheek twitching irregularly.

'Edea wants to know the meaning of SeeD!' Seifer repeated, irritated at the brat's stubbornness. 'There must be some secret you're given when you make SeeD. Edea wants to know it.'

Squall fell silent, eyelids drooping shut for a moment. Then they shot up, and the look Squall gave Seifer was filled with anger and hatred.

'I don't know!' he snapped, then grated out,' And - even if I know, what makes you think I would tell you?'

Seifer sighed. 'Is that all you can say? That's _soo_ clichéd, you know?'

_'Aaargh...!'_

__'That's better,' the knight said approvingly. 'Straight from the heart.' Warning alarms were ringing in his brain, a tiny voice yelling. _'This isn't like you! You don't normally act like this! What's going on!' _it screamed, wailing in confusion and fright. Seifer ignored it, wondering if he was going mad.

Turning on his heel, Seifer strode out, with a parting order to the warden.

'Carry on. I want an answer out of him.'

As the door swished shut on the screams behind him, Seifer smiled.

He had a Garden to acquire. For Edea.

**o**

Even through the walls of the room he imagined he could hear the screaming outside. The battle for Galbadia Garden was in full swing, and nothing was stopping it now.

Seifer Almasy stood behind the sorceress' throne, not even fidgeting. He couldn't understand why Edea wanted him here when he could have served her better leading the troops, but it wasn't his place to question the Sorceress.

_Since when did you become so subservient?_ The inner voice questioned, and Seifer chose, as always, to ignore it.

They waited there for what seemed like an eternity to Seifer, who was inwardly fidgeting and outwardly calm. 'What are we waiting for?' he tried to ask, but his body froze before he even uttered the first syllable. The sound of booted feet slapping the floor outside hit his ears.

Edea released him immediately, so fast he almost felt it never happened, but he was shaking inside.

The door hissed open, disclosing a grim-looking Squall, an excited-looking Selphie, and an indignant-looking Zell, who was bouncing up and down eagerly. Squall had a perpetual 'I'm putting up with this only because you can fight well' expression on his face. Understandable - being with Selphie Tillmitt and Zell Dincht for some time could do that to someone.

Raising his gunblade to an offensive position, Seifer stepped in front of Edea's throne.

He had to do his duty.

**o**

_I failed... again?_

'Worthless little fool,' Edea said, moving gracefully to stand. Magic tugged at him, making him feel light and dizzy. The sorceress' body went transparent; sinking through the throne like when she had went through the podium to land on the float.

Still sprawled on the floor, Seifer heard Squall say 'The auditorium is downstairs!' The three of them rushed out of the room, Squall in the lead. Seifer lay there, unable to stop them. It gnawed at him like a bug.

_Has... has Edea abandoned me? Like... like my mother? _He had no idea where that thought came from - he couldn't even _remember_ his mother.

Now that the adrenaline rush that had carried him through the battle was rapidly draining off, Seifer felt a curious emptiness inside, as if something vital had been taken away. A sour feeling of dread filled him.

_What have I don't? I've led Galbadia Garden against Balamb Garden, led SeeDs and soldiers to their doom... I'm a monster. A murderer. A knight shouldn't have to do that... we're supposed to protect our sorceresses, not act as executers, torturers, _murderers_... _

__It was as if he'd seen himself in a mirror. And what he saw wasn't a knight in shining armor, but a young man in a tattered, bloodstained trenchcoat with blood on his hands.

A strange sensation washed through him, as if he was being detached from his body. He could still feel, think, talk, but he felt like the edges of his mind were swathed in cotton wool, numbing him.

_For the sorceress. All for the sorceress. _Everything_ for the sorceress. Nothing else matters. Nothing anymore..._

__

**o**

_'Seifer, my knight...'_

__Seifer Almasy opened his eyes. There was nothing else he could do, in the face of that hard, forceful command that tightened the cotton wool around his brain to steel and took over his body. A blurred face focused slowly into Rinoa Heartilly, half-bent over him. Her expression was strange. Not the kind of expression he'd have expected from Rinoa. The next words out of her mouth explained it all.

_'The sorceress awakens. The sorceress demands.'_

__Edea was _Rinoa_? _The hell..._ No. Ultimecia. He didn't know how he knew; he just knew... that Ultimecia was Edea, and now, Ultimecia was Rinoa. The thinking part of his mind pondered and catalogued this, while his body moved automatically. He didn't know what was happening, and didn't care anymore.

_'Seek out the Lunatic Pandora where it lies under the ocean. When you have it, I will return to you.'_

__Sitting up, Seifer felt like a puppet. 

'As you wish, Ultimecia.'_ _


End file.
